Thursday, September 19, 2013

Rouhani's Normalcy

The release resonates particularly strongly inside Iran, where it
appeared to mark a first clear act of dismantling what analysts have
called the “securitization” of the country: a process that gave
increasing power to internal security forces, beginning with the 2005
election of arch-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and
deepening appreciably after his fraud-tainted 2009 reelection and its
violent aftermath.

Mr. Rouhani has called his shocking mid-June victory over a slate of
conservative candidates the “beginning of a new chapter,” with
expectations that the “era of sorrow is coming to an end.” Thousands of
Iranians thronged streets across the country to celebrate Rouhani’s win.

My take on this is that Rouhani is trying to take Iran past the conflict and crisis that surrounded the 2009 presidential election, and promote an Iranian version of normalcy in which the reformists are brought in from the cold under the banner of the Islamic republic, perhaps quietly finding ways to put the suppression of the Green Movement into a black box called the "Ahmadinejad years" and act as if it had nothing to do with the system in power.

About Me

I am an Associate Professor in History at Shippensburg University, where I teach courses in Middle Eastern and world history. My two major research areas are the Middle East from the 7th through 10th centuries and the Persian Gulf from ancient times to the present. Nothing on this site represents an official position of Shippensburg University.